TBB LIT LIST October/November 2026

Check out our recommended reads for October and November!

This edition, we’re reading Bitter Melon by Liv Little, The Siren by Tomi Adeyemi, The Quiet Girls by Dorothy Koomson, Hanging and Burning by Walter Mosley and more.

From gripping thrillers and fantasy to stories exploring family, identity, love and belonging, there’s plenty to add to your reading list.

Big Man by Dean Atta

Follows the life of Big, a middle-aged, Black British gay man who lives a gentle life with his boyfriend, Little, in their home in East London. Big and Little enjoy evenings out and group holidays with friends, as much as practising yoga together at home, and running side by side along the Hackney canals.

Big came of age in the club scene under the watchful eye of Mother, an African American trans woman who made a home and a name for herself in London, her house a refuge for wayward queer youth like Big. When he finds out Mother is releasing a memoir, the two reconnect after decades of distance, and Big finds himself having to confront a long-repressed assault that opens old – and new – wounds.

Publish date: 3rd September 2026
Publisher: Cipher Press

MARK ONE ISMS Volume One — Trying To Convince Idiots Is A Job For Fools by Mark Walters

Most advice tells you how to get better. This book tells you what to stop wasting your life on. Across 52 short chapters, one for every week of the year, BAFTA-winning creative director Mark Walters makes one argument. Talent is common, and what separates people is judgement: who you spend your time on, what you accept, what you charge, and whether you act now or wait.

The title chapter sets the tone. Walters claims the word “fool” for himself before he hands it to anyone else. He spent thirty meetings and over £100,000 of unpaid brand work trying to convince a funder who had already decided. His conclusion is that a closed mind is a fixed position, not a problem a better argument can solve. The answer is a better room: let the work do the convincing, and walk away from people who won’t move.

The book is aimed primarily at creatives in the commercial art industry: broadcast, magazines, music, entertainment, packaging, brand identity, motion graphics, directing and producing. Its main goal is to protect the creative, equipping them with tools based on real-life affirmations, born out of experience and tried and tested on the battlefield of creative endeavour.

Available now in paperback and eBook via Amazon, Apple Books, and worldwide bookshops through IngramSpark distribution alongside a limited-edition hardback on Amazon, with full hardback availability at Christmas and an audiobook following in the weeks after launch.

Publisher: Mark One Books
Publication date: Friday 2 October 2026

Bitter Melon by Rose Little by Liv Little

Jalissa and her dad aren’t close, but when he invites her to Jamaica, his homeland, for the first time, she says yes.

She’s running from heartbreak and a loss of her own; he’s running out of time.

As they travel through sun-drenched towns and navigate tangled family roots, old wounds open and long-held silences begin to break. They’re both trying to outrun something-but along the way, they cross paths with people whose stories shift their own, helping them face the past, reckon with the present and reimagine what comes next.

‘Liv Little pulls you into a world where the characters feel like everyone you’ve ever known, loved and learned. Bitter Melon is deftly written, full of heart and human nature’s complexities.’ Candice Carty-Williams

‘A beautiful, tender story about the relationship between a father and daughter, the meaning of home, and finding your way back to yourself. Little captures Jamaica, forever home to me, so beautifully. Thank you for taking me there.’ Shani Akilah

Publisher: Dialogue Books
Publication date: October 22nd 2026

The Quiet Girls by Dorothy Koomson

When MJ Hudson, an old work acquaintance, shows up at Dr Kez Lanyon’s house in the middle of the night, Kez knows she has no choice but to help.

At the prestigious boarding school that MJ’s daughter attends, a teacher has been killed and a pupil is missing. And it seems that the same thing happens every few years. Only this time, the school haven’t been able to cover things up and MJ’s daughter and her group of nice, quiet friends are right at the heart of the scandal.

Undercover as the new school therapist, Kez quickly realises there are some seriously powerful, well-connected forces at play. And by continuing to investigate the mystery, perhaps even stepping outside the law to do so, Kez risks putting her own family in serious danger.

Because no one wants their secrets aired. And some will go to any length to keep them buried.

Publisher: Headline
Publication date: March 12th 2026

Destined: A Promise Fulfilled by Remi Adejumo

Some loves are chosen. Some loves are fought for. And some are written long before we take our first breath.

Atoke learned young that love could leave wounds as deep as its joy. Years later, she has built a life defined by discipline, achievement, and carefully guarded certainty. A life where everything is controlled, contained, and safe.

Then she meets a stranger. Their connection is immediate. Familiar. Impossible to explain.

Some connections ask difficult questions. Questions about family, faith, loss, and the invisible threads that bind us to one another across time, distance, and generations. As old wounds collide with new possibilities, Atoke must decide whether love is worth risking everything she has spent a lifetime protecting.

Publish date: 31st October 2026
Publisher: Seven Acre Press

Pillaging the Dead by Degol Hailu

Tarik sells banned books to survive. One violent police raid turns him into the enemy the state is determined to silence.

In an unnamed African country ruled by fear, university student Tarik earns money selling forbidden books, pirated music and his own political cartoons.

When he falls into the hands of the feared Central Investigation Bureau, he is pulled into a dangerous network of activists, dissidents, underground printers and revolutionary artists.

Publish date: 19th November 2026
Publisher: Cassava Republic

Melody and Pain by Marissa McCallam

It’s 2018 and relentless people-pleaser, Melody, is fresh from a break-up. When best friend, Nico, invites her to a party as a distraction, Melody is blindsided by evidence of her ex-boyfriend’s infidelity. To make matters worse, she is then ignored for a work promotion and faces a pay cut. Worried about affording her bills, she desperately arranges flatmate interviews, inviting the mysterious Pain to live with her.

As Melody’s connection with Pain deepens over intimate meals and ‘game nights’, the usually easy-going Nico becomes increasingly distant. Encouraged by Pain, Melody accepts a free trial at the local Thai boxing gym where she meets self-assured trainer, Yvette. With the growth of her physical strength and confidence, Melody begins to question her relationships. Exploring identity, mental health and the healing process, Melody & Pain is a novel asking the question: What if Pain were a person and moved into your home?

Publish date: 23rd November 2026
Publisher: Indie Novella

Heir of the Shadow by Marvellous Michael Anson

In the Kingdom of Oru, L’ore is an exile . . .

Her deadly, icy shadow magic has been discovered. She is a threat – one the Crown will stop at nothing to eliminate.

As L’ore flees the only home she’s ever known, alongside fellow outlaw Remi, the pair are ambushed by a band of Sand Raiders from the western lands. Death seems certain – until Remi reveals a secret of his own.

He is their long lost prince.

Taken together to the Sand Raider Kingdom – Remi to the throne and L’ore in chains – L’ore faces her gravest danger yet. As she awaits her fate, heartbroken, separated from everyone she ever loved – Remi makes her an offer.

A dangerous bargain. To find the home she longs for, will she trust Remi’s offer or risk it all – alone?

‘Absolutely Radiant’ Bea Fitzgerald

‘Wildly Imaginative‘ Hannah Kaner

‘Sweeping, enchanting‘ Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

Black Fish: How To Fish, And Stories Of The Wata, Kin & Community by Speech Debelle

In this unique guide intertwining personal memoir with practical fishing advice, Mercury-award winning rapper Speech Debelle explores fishing as a powerful allegory for navigating life’s challenges and triumphs.

Find patience, resilience and joy in every cast – whether in life’s journey or your next catch.

Using fishing as a metaphor for personal growth, healing and belonging, Black Fish is a captivating blend of practical fishing guide, intimate memoir and cultural reflection, written by multitalented musician Speech Debelle. Lyrically woven across an array of practical fishing advice – from chosen equipment and casting techniques to weather considerations and mindfulness – each chapter interlaces interviews and stories by seasoned anglers with Speech’s reflections on community, identity and finding one’s roots.ind patience, resilience and joy in every cast – whether in life’s journey or your next catch.

Publication Date: 12th May 2026
Publisher: Watkins Publishing

Metamorphosis The Butterfly Effect by Karl Lokko

At nine I wanted to be a forensic pathologist. At ten I wanted to be a vet. At eleven an astronaut. At twelve I wanted to be the most notorious gang member in London.”

Metamorphosis: The Butterfly Effect is a collection of poetry born from pressures, pains and the urgency for change by a young man in his early twenties. Over a decade later they are published for the first time and include his current reflections and observations through a series of endnotes.

Publisher: OWN IT!
Publication date: 12th October 2026

The Siren by Tomi Adeyemi

When Emery joins Dartmouth College she’s determined it will be the ticket to her future, as she leaves the chaos of her past behind. But before long she meets glamorous, intoxicating Roux, and her close-knit band of ‘sirens’. Why can’t she stay away from them – and what do they want from Emery? As she learns more about these women, it becomes clear that there is a dark power operating at the heart of their circle. And, with everything on the line, Emery decides it’s a power she must take for herself – no matter the cost.

Publish date: 1st October 2026
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Hanging and Burning by Walter Mosley

A dying gangster’s plea sends Joe King Oliver on a quest for a missing woman across America’s coasts, unraveling a dark and violent family history along the way.

Joe King Oliver is the big man you call to solve the most delicate and dangerous of problems. Fresh off having solved the mystery of his own parents’ fates, King finds himself accepting (again at his grandmother’s request) a case from Arman Babylon, a powerful Los Angeles gangster now dying from cancer.

Babylon’s granddaughter, Twyla Mann, has been missing for years, and he’s desperate to find her before he passes. But the search pulls King into the Babylons’ stained past and the cold case of Dalia Shorts, a torch singer who vanished without a trace and whom Arman was once suspected of killing. But nothing is what it seems, not Arman, not the young woman King must find, and not Arman’s enemies who stand in the detective’s way.

As King follows a trail from L.A. to New York and back, he discovers a pattern of violence that has targeted the women around Babylon for decades—and he’ll have to decide how much he’s willing to risk so as to set a few things right.

Publish date: 20th October 2026
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

The Turning of Sally-Mae by Nuzo Onoh

Two fearsome deities battle each other for the souls of white twins destined to either bring vengeful devastation or salvation to their community in Texas, USA, for a great injustice done to their mother.

When Sally-Mae Jenkins is violated and impregnated by the twin scions of a wealthy rancher, she’s sent to join the African missionary ship as a widow. Pregnant and terrified, Sally-Mae vows vengeance on all those who abused her and her family.

Amara is a young woman with the body and face of an old hag. The village outcast, Amara can ‘eat’ the diseases ravaging the villagers and cure the most deadly ailments. But her powers drain her youth and her strength and the only help she has is the fearsome entity that claimed her soul, the spirit known as Aja-Mmo, the death-giver and physician of the dead.

When Sally-Mae arrives in Amara’s village, her unborn twins become the focus of both the Python-Goddess, Asata, who wants the twins dead, and Aja-Mmo, who wants the twins alive in her service, just like Amara. And suddenly, Sally-Mae finds the boys, with their unearthly and fearsome powers, have become the weapons of her vengeance against the unsuspecting citizens of her home town back in Texas….

Publish date: 20th October 2026
Publisher: Titan Books Ltd

In One Brief Moment All Eternity by Elif Shafak

In One Brief Moment All Eternity is an astonishing new novel by the bestselling, prize-winning novelist Elif Shafak. Spanning decades and continents, from revolutionary 19th century France to Istanbul, Egypt and Beirut, it is a profound meditation on creativity in times of political crisis and war, asking what literature can hope to offer when the world feels broken. Building a fascinating bridge between Western prose and Eastern poetry, this story offers a luminous portrait of the life of an iconic writer, Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary, told through the lives of the women – both real and fictional – who shaped him.

Publication date: October 15th 2026
Publisher: Viking / Penguin BooksPublisher: Penguin Books Ltd